Yeah, on the road! Pastures look good.
Look at that lush pasture!
Dang windmills, blagh. Nice native grass there. Winter wheat looks good. Oh, yeah, feedlot. I need to try that cafe there. More good grass. Hmm, playa’s a little dry. Wheee!
Down the cliff we go!
Down the escarpment and still in Texas. Yipe! Gotta play dodge-truck. Those guys are nuts and I’m getting away from all three of them.
OK, not stopping in Tucumcari in case those guys do something else dumb. Tucumcari, Comanche word meaning a high place surrounded by low places. Wonder if they ever go there now for vision quests? Hmm, grass looks really good under the old growth. 
Beautiful cottonwoods, lot darker gold than usual. What’s that flower? Don’t recognize it. Bright red, Dakota sandstone? Could be, need to get out geology map, ah, blargh, left map at home. Lovely skies this time of year.
Hmm, playas are getting fuller again. More rain last month out here. Good looking cattle. Ah, great to be out of town for a few days. At last, Santa Rosa safety area, lights on. I wonder if some day I should take that exit and go poke around the land grant. But not today, not without a really good map and more water. I wonder what it looked like with the springs still active, oh yeah, only in the river valley, not up here, we’re east of the Ogallala. Shell Station here I come.
The Loves in the upper right is my usual stop.
Much better. Ugh, I really wish those billboards would go away. They are probably historic landmarks by now. Too hazy to see Truchas yet, but there’s the Canadian River Escarpment. Little volcanic neck, check, and up the ridge we go. Doesn’t look like 7000′ but it is. There’s another new wild flower. Huh. Have to look that one up sometime.
Looking east. Miles and miles of… miles.
Good, the wind is dying down a little. Pronghorn! At least a dozen. Good. That was the rest area where I first saw pronghorn down here, yeah. Next rest area, I’ll—. Nope, closed. Oh well, not that big of a deal. Glad the clouds are thinning the sun. Want to get through the pass before dark. Please not another four-hour traffic jam, please.
Sandia from east side on I-40.
Dang, the grass looks good out here! More fat cows, Angus. There’s now a glider museum? Did they taxidermy [name]? Or did he just fossilize there on the bench at the gliderport? I need to go soaring again, but not today. Sod farm, check. Wow, the pumpkin farm has grown. This was a heck of a place to make a living, back in the day. Still no water. Wonder if that developer ever got sued over the water rights? I need to go back to the ruins down south of here when I have more time. And up we go.
Over the pass, around the bend, look out world.
Traffic moving along. I’d love to teach geology here, volcanic to sedimentary to rift valley volcanics again. The same formation at the top of Sandia is in Palo Duro Canyon, hard to believe. Traffic’s moving well, ah, there’s a New Mexico Dod-For-Evy. Yes, yes, little grey car, you go right ahead. I have out-of-state plates. I need to take the Turquoise Trail again some day.
Yeah! Mt. Taylor and the volcanoes! Let’s see, how do I want to get there? Oh joy, rush-hour’s starting on time.
Sandia means watermelon. You can see why the mountain got its name.
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Sounds like a good trip.
Sounds like boredom set in about 50 miles out of Amarillo… LOL And you were doing your damnest to stay awake and coherent. Not that ‘I’ have ever done that on long trips…Nope…
Actually, I wasn’t bored at all. I’ve done so much research and work on the area that I’m always looking at things, seeing what has changed, wondering what’s back behind that, recalling stories, and so on. Plus there’s more than enough vehicular excitement to keep me going. I’d like less traffic, but it’s I-40, and getting into winter. Traffic is what it is.
Good point, I had forgotten about that. At least you’re basing your looking around on knowledge, instead of boredom! 😀
Enjoy Abq! I lived there 3 years, oh! so long ago. Gorgeous sunsets!
I’m coming to like it more than Santa Fe. Santa Fe has more concentrated history, but Quirky Burke feels warmer now, and has a lot for me to do that’s within my budget.
Road trips with you are fun! If only for the everything we get to learn and laugh about on the way! …although if there wasn’t a schedule, we might be in severe danger of never getting anywhere for all the detours and side trips, and “ooh, that’s neat”…
I recognize that Santa Rosa roadscape – the sign for the Route 66 Auto Museum is poking up into view on the right third of the photo – that old yellow car on a pole.
😀
I’ll file this one for my wife to look at, for when we plan legs of our expedition to the real Southwest. I anticipate many side trips like this, for geology, flowers, wildlife. Just thankful that you didn’t add “look, a jack rabbit!”
Tucumcari is worth special bonus points for us, as it’s a unique destination roll in an old Avalon Hill board game called “Rail Baron.” The game makes a great evening of play and fun, and adding information or pictures from the less-traveled destinations is part of the fun. I got fussed at for sending home pictures of the Santa Fe station in San Diego (literal end of the line), without her.